We need as many people as possible to post in the comments section of the current Yves Engler blog
It's the one on accusations of anti-semitism at Concordia University(I'd post the link, but for some reason my new laptop isn't letting me cut-and-paste links into Babble threads).
The point here isn't the article itself, but the comments section below. For some reason, the comments are being dominated by ACTUAL antisemites and Holocaust deniers(one even praises Mein Kampf, for god's sakes).
If left unchallenged, these posts will bring dishonor and discredit on the whoe Rabble site, and be used against it by its enemies-to say nothing of the fact that they are reprehensible in their own right.
If you don't have a Disqus account, I'd encourage everyone here to get one just to make it clear that these Nazi bastards are not what Rabble and Babble are about.
I don't know how to complain to Disqus. I've complained to the mods here and flagged many trollish comments there. I really wish there were another system, as this is also a data-farmino operation, but I can't let blogs, if they continue to exist, be continue to be trolled by rightwingers whether (in this case) they are neo-Nazis, hard-arsed Zionists, or the "third type" of antisemitic (Christian) Zionist who wants to be rid of Jews and Arabs in one fell swoop.
I don't always agree with Engler - he can be very grating, even towards others on the left - but he is absolutely right here. There was utterly no antisemitism involved in the Concordia protests and many antizionist or humanist Jewish students took part in them. They related strictly to the aggression by Israel against the Palestinian people and fighting complicity with that.
I get the concern, but I think most reasonable people can spot trolls and cranks when they see them. And the distinction between the site and the flame war is also pretty clear. Most news sites wind up having to deal with that kind of shit.
Speaking of shit, getting covered in that is really the only outcome I see by engaging with it. I seriously doubt it is going to silence them because they feed on people's outrage.
(edit)
Just read it. Train wreck.
I agree they feed on outrage. People start little crusades to take down facebook pages they don't like and if by some chance the page is taken down they celebrate their hard earned victory, minutes later a new page is up under a new account. Disq is a shit show. The off time I DO find myself on there for something I see people who have been on there for 2-3 years and post counts 30'000+ It's like a full time job for them.
We have the sum of all human knowledge at the tips of our fingers (literally) and we use it to call each other names and try to piss each other off.
The issue here isn't Engler's blog, it's the verbal sewage in the comments section. Thank you for helping challenge it, Lagatta.
The problem is Disqus. Rabble should unhook from it.
Absolutely. Here, and beforehand on rabble blogs and any aspect of the online publication, participants were required to abide by the guidelines set forthi in its statement. They are fairly broad and don't dictate a specific ideology or political outlook, but from Disqus, there have been plenty of commenters from trolls, racists and other reactionaries. One just went after me for no apparent reason in a recent blogpost about child poverty; you know, the kind of rightwinger who accuses anyone on the left of being into unicorns and rainbows and singing camp songs.
That is now clear.
It took a whole day before the Nazi posts were deleted and the comments closed on that.
Thanks to everyone who flagged the hate posts there.
Somebody posted a blog on rabble.ca back in February that warned the powers that be that hooking up with Disqus was a very bad idea.
Don't have a Disqus account and don't plan to ever have one.
No disqus account here either, and no plans.